The Untold Story of Crispus Attucks
It is an interesting note upon American history that Crispus Attucks is referred to as a black patriot. He was, in the sense that his father was African. However, it is equally true that his mother was Native American. His mother’s courage, sweet personality, and quiet intelligence found a welcoming home in Crispus’ heart.
His name tells his ancestral lineage. “Crispus” refers to “curled”, meaning his tight-curled hair. His last name is from the language of his mother’s tribe. Of course the “note” I speak of is Slavery’s habit of categorizing anyone with the least bit African ancestry as black since that accounted for business efficiency in those days of barter in human lives.
If you were any part black, you could pretty much guess that meant the slave-owners thought you were good for only one thing: being a slave. Acknowledging his Native American ancestry helps repudiate the rules of chattel slavery and acknowledges the humanity of Crispus Attucks as a full human being.
This much we owe him, even before we recall the story of his courage and sacrifice. His mother is honored as well as his father; Native Americans can be proud of him, too, no less than the African-American community.
CRISPUS ESCAPES TO FREEDOM
Escaped slaves had to be constantly on the outlook to avoid recapture. This was true during the journey itself and it remained true even after they began living in in a free state, since wealthy slave-owners hired slave-catchers to go out and catch runaways. Sometimes these fiendish brutes kidnapped free Negroes if they could get away with it.
Slave-catching was a violent business; recaptured slaves were chained and imprisoned, beaten and starved, sometimes whipped and maimed. We need not go further into all the gruesome details here; suffice it to say, we grieve for those recaptured and returned in shackles to bondage. At the same time, we rejoice for those courageous men and women who successfully escaped to freedom and began a new life in the northern states or in Canada!
Crispus was born in Massachusetts; his parents were slaves who had accepted their lot in life. They had a cottage and a small garden plot; it was enough. Crispus, on the other hand, rebelled against his slave status. He ran away when in his teens and, despite a vigorous search that almost nabbed him at the pier, he put out to sea.
There is nothing particularly unusual in this; an enslaved person of any race truly desiring freedom would risk as much. He found work on a whaling boat and is said to have mastered the art of the harpooner . . . but after five years, he found himself longing to see his parents again.
As a runaway slave, this meant the danger of being recaptured but he was willing to risk it. And so it came to pass that Crispus Attucks was in Boston on the day that marked a turning point in American history: March 5, 1770.
That day would see the spark that marked the true beginning of the American Revolution, though Lexington and Concord were still five years in the future!
THE REDCOATS OPEN FIRE
The episode has been passed down from generation to generation as the Boston Massacre. When British Redcoats were ordered to fire on the crowd that had gathered to challenge their authority, Crispus Attucks was the first man killed. It is said he had challenged the British sentry to a fight when the soldiers gave in to their panic and fright.
Think of it! Through his mother’s lineage, Crispus Attucks was standing on home soil, fighting for the freedom of his people and his land. He was about to enter the history books: “the first man to give his life for American Independence was the black patriot Crispus Attucks.”
You see, Slavery and its legacy of racism have taught us to accept that phrase “black patriot” as accurate. In the years when racial prejudice was still the norm, Americans could begrudgingly begin to admire the black race a little bit more because of Crispus Attucks’ courage . . . but we typically neglect to mention his mother’s Native American ancestry, as though it could not possibly be of equal worth.
Yes, this poor runaway slave who liked the idea of liberty became a remarkable icon for our nation’s dramatic birthright. His life has become part of the nation’s memory and conscience.
If the history books wish to keep alive the story of Crispus Attucks as a black American hero for future generations, I suppose we should remain thankful. At least the nation has grown up enough to be able to express its respect for a black hero of the American Revolution.
Perhaps I am asking for too much too soon. Still, someday, when we finally make right our debt to Native Americans—the true first Americans—perhaps then there will be time enough for telling Crispus Attucks’ story truthfully.
For now, on this Memorial Day of 2017, let us remember March 5, 1770: the Boston Massacre.
A man born in slavery to a Native American mother and an African father gave his blood for the cause of American liberty.
Our national “Tree of Liberty” is deeply planted and richly nourished by the blood of patriots.
Perhaps one day we will we need not ask what color or race, what language or land. We will merely honor the blood sacrifice of patriots, commingling in the American earth.
The act itself should earn our respect for those who freed us, at the cost of their own lives.
That is why we remember and honor this man who gave his life for the cause of freedom!
CRISPUS ATTUCKS
